We got up early this morning and started south on 37 and didn’t stop until we reached Meziadin Jct which is where we got gas and went 45 miles west on paved road to go to Stewart and Hyder.These are the only towns off of this junction from Highway 37 and they are governed by two different countries. One uses metric, the other standard, US and Canadian money. We drove thru Stewart which was a small town located in British Columbia and continued into Hyder which was even smaller and part of the United States. At Hyder there were little souvenir shops, places to get you RV washed and smoked salmon being sold along the street. There was also a gravel road that went to a glacier. We did not have time to go to the glacier, but we did eat lunch in a restaurant where they were talking about the road and tourists were skeptical about going on the road to the glacier. Locals though said it would not be a problem. The owner had stated that only one person had fallen off the road and gone over the cliff and died in all of the years that people have been driving it, and that this person was just going to fast and not respecting the road.
We left town after lunch and headed towards Prince Rupert. We got into the Kitwanga junction and turned west on highway 16. This is a nice trip as you can see a view of the Seven Sisters Mountain Range that has seven peaks. We passed a small town called Terrace and travel along the Skeens River which has nice scenery with little islands along the river. There was also an abandoned boat called the Naknek along the side of the highway by the river that Jacob and I played on for a couple minutes to stretch and get out of the truck. We came into Prince Rupert around 6:00 and stopped at a couple gift shops and drove around for a while.
We drove to Port Edward which is an industrial area about five miles
away. There is a cannery museum here that gives dailly tours until 7:00 pm,
we got there just a little too late. We also drove by the sawmill which
looked like it was no longer in operation. We
stayed at the Parkside Resort, it cost $70 Canadian with tax. We talked to the
hotel clerk and she had said that there was a union dispute that was going on
with the new managaement that had bought the sawmill earlier this year.
She also explained that there would have to be changes made to be efficient
and profitable and that meant changes in job responsibilities which was also
causing problems. This is a small town that depends on the saw mill, tourism,
fishing and exporting business. The economy has been depressed lately with
the ferries from alaska also not comming in because of the fishing dispute between the
United States and Canada.
We ate seafood at Smile's Cafe and then walked around the waterfront for a
little while as it was nice all day. Here is a picture of a fisherman that sells lunch meals to fisherman
on his boat as he barbecues fresh seafodd from what he caught that morning.
Later on that evening we went to
Breaker for a couple drinks at a bar that overlooked the water. This place was
rather quiet as only locals were in but it was also a Tueadasy night at 12:00.
I had drove 650 miles today and 6400 total in 12 days